³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

A glorious year for Red Bull and for F1, made so by the great ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ coverage.

It's just a shame the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ decided to throw it away with the worst TV management decision in history.

So long F1.

No To Sky!

It's a real shame that ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ have not got all the races. It was dreadful on ITV mainly down to the advert interruptions during the race.
At least Sky will run the race uninterrupted.

But no Murray, and no Fleetwood Mac :(

It was a fantastic season for F1 this year, and not so good season for Mclaren and Ferrari due to the dominance of Redbull.

Us F1 fans cannot enjoy this sport again because of an down write DISGUSTING deal that only gives us 10 of 20 races for 2012.
Shame on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ for this OUTRAGEOUS MESS!
Also shame on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Management for even thinking about such a deal!

ONE last Thing,

NO TO SKY & RUPERT MURDOCK!

I wish all these people would stop complaining about the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ/Sky deal. No it's not good but guess what? It's been done. Nothing will be done about it. They are happy with it (see autosport) if you will see. if you don't want SKY don't get it. JUST STOP WHINING!!!!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I'm sure the usual people will continue living in denial, but here are some hard facts.

1) The numbers of hardcore F1 fans in the UK are a tiny insignificant minority.
2) This is why they (rightly) have no influence or voice over the Sky deal.
3) The vast majority of casual tv viewers will accept the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖs decision.
4) Majorities will always trump minorities.
5) Here endeth the lesson.
6) Now deal with it...

@ Excess

To answer your facts
1) Agree and that's why highly priced subscription service will fail like it did before
2) To some extent, but I think what James Allen describes as "an anti f1 cliche working within ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ" makes more sense with the cost and viewing figures success.
3) The vast majority are like you said in 1) and will easily just float away from the sport and probably still don't even know ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ aren't showing all the races live next year.
4) Disagree, it only takes a handful of people in high up places in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ catering for themselves. Majorities or minorities are meaningless here.

For anyone wanting to comment on deal can do so below /blogs/sporteditors/2011/11/bbc_formula_1_an_update.html


Thanks Murray, Hope to see you at some of the grands prix next year.

@mr-big. Let's be absolutely clear. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ/Sky/Bernie have been able to make this deal stick PRECISELY because the vast majority of the British public don't care about it and the tiny numbers of dedicated F1 fans who do, aren't sufficient enough to make a meaningful difference.

That's the harsh reality whether you all like it or not.

@Excess

We agree then but what I was saying is that could well be the reason Sky can't get enough subscribers like before with the digital+ thing. I personally think Ecclestone, Sky and the teams have over estimated the amount of hard-core F1 fans.

Look at that petition, only 40,000 signed it. If it had of been a petition for F1 moving to Sky they probably only would have got about 4 signatures.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ if you actually read these. Could we please have a legend like Murray Walker used in a greater way than hid on a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blog. I know he is like 1000 years old but from the blog videos and British GP forum coverage he is still as sharp as ever.

Would be great to see him do some interviews with the current drivers on the grid or something like that, then show them in the live races build up. Murray interviewing the likes of Schumacher or Alonso , or the newer Vettel generation would be classic viewing.

@mr-big. Glad we can find some common ground. And I do agree with your #9 completely. I just happen to think that Sky have the ongoing desire and monetary resources to be able to overcome any deficit in audience numbers. This is something that Roosta1 has mentioned at length on Ben Gallup's blog.

Before I get lynched I'd like to make the point that I love the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's coverage and think the last couple of years have been sensational, however...

I personally am looking forward to seeing what Sky do with F1 coverage. The news that there will be a dedicated Sky F1 channel is brilliant and any true fan of F1 would feel the same with live coverage of all the practice sessions, qualifying and the race as well as a weekly magazine shows and other 'new' forms of coverage.

My only concern was that we would be forced to sign up to full Sky Sports, but this is not the case as its free for HD customers as well. There are some 25 million Sky customers in the UK and last year an average of around 6 million watched the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ coverage, so I'm guessing most 'fans' are already Sky customers anyway!

Why not ease up on the Sky hating until we see what they do with F1!

I'd like to add this comes off the back of me fallin out with Sky customer services last night!

Time to run and hide from the ensuing mob.

@NFC1982

Don't worry, I won't lynch you, Il just moan instead, it's more British.

There may be 25 million sky customers, but only 5 million sky sports customers, and the majority of them probably bought it for football. It seems to make no sense for Sky as even if ALL of their current customers watched it, they would still be short of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ this year, and it seems the majority of F1 fans not on Sky are against them, so I dont see where the viewing figures will come from to make it worthwhile.

Im pretty sure they will do a 1st class job of F1 and it would be nice to see how it comes out, but the fact for me is that I can't afford Sky, and that's why Im so 'browned' off about the deal, as I now can't watch fully a sport Ive watched since I was about 3 years old. And to me, it all seems to be for nothing as Sky won't get the figures it wants.

Oh, and another thing, 2018 is too long a contract for this.

Great to see Murray doing his thing again!

I too was disappointed by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ditching full race coverage in 2012 not just because of the costs associated with buying sky to watch but also for breaking up what to me was a near perfect broadcast team.

It's almost like if the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ decided to cut Top Gear's budget by selling off the hamster to channel 5.

Nevertheless after seeing lots of folks claiming it would cost £700/800 a year to get sky just to watch the F1 I did a bit of research myself.

Originally I assumed that I'd need a sky sports package but that doesn't seem the case. The sky f1 page clearly states the new f1 channel will be available to those with the hd pack.

So I've purchased sky with the hd pack, total is £30 a month with £10 off first month. Now I realise £350 to some is still unaffordable but it's worth it to me to watch all the races live and certainly not as much money as I originally thought.

Of course I'd rather the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ had continued with the same coverage they had in 2011...and if they ever announce a return to full live coverage of EVERY race I'll cancel my subscription to the devil's family in a heartbeat.

Until then, ta ta for now ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ...thanks for all the fish.

Dave-BSR, just so you know who it is.

Whilst Adrian is at Red Bull and the ban on in season testing goes on the status quo will remain. Adrian can really set up the aeros.

NFC1982 - wrong Sky have around 10 million subscribers not 25 million and Sky Sports around 2 million. Now how many of those 10 million have HD?

25 million customers is half the total UK population and if they had that number of customers they would be over the moon.

The majority of Sky subscribers do not have it to watch F1 and the Sports subscribers have it mainly to watch football. Still subscribers have to pay £30.25 per month = £363 and this amount will cover their £45 million outlay if they only sell 124,000 subscriptions plus you have to pay £149 for the HD + box.

We now ask ourselves if only 50,000 extra subscriptions are received then Sky will drop it like a hot potato. Perhaps the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are relying on that and think that Sky will sell the rights to them cheaply.

Personally I just can't put money in the pocket of Murdoch and company and why should I watch a programme headed up by a convicted drunk driver?

The trouble with society today is a lack of morals brought about by Thatchers me me me me generation who mainly reside in the City.

If you feel that News International are a kosher company and not morally bankrupt then go ahead and invest in Sky. Me I'm not going to watch it on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ as they have all the rubbish races.

Look at the first 4: China, Spain, Monaco and Europe, then somehow they got UK and Spa and then its back to Rubbish: Singapore, Korea and Abu Dhabi, until Brazil. So the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are showing 3 Grands Prix next year that are worth watching. We lose Monza, Japan, Germany and Canada.

F1 has gone to far they are going for the cash from impressionable governments of countries who should spend their money on improving the lot of their people before staging events that nobody but the ruling elite and wealthy foreigners can afford.

Bye Bye Formula 1 - Hello BTCC on ITV4

I totally agree with Dave-BSR in post #15. I'm not going to add anything further as I have tried several times to put my point across on various ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blog pages which has resulted in my posts being removed by the Beeb's moderators. Suffice it to say I refuse to sign up to SKY on moral grounds.

The fact of the matter is, that a minute amount of people watch F1 in the UK and Ireland. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ lost a fortune this year and the F1 rights are very expensive, so most people would rather the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ keep the football, rugby etc. not the F1 coverage.
Formula 1 is going to SKY FACT. There is nothing that a whole load of whining can solve. At least we

I hope Red Bull don't dominate for a 3rd successive season, I'm sure that they wont in 2012. I can see Mclaren and Ferrari being a lot closer and maybe even Mercedes.

I am really looking forward to the new season and looking forward to the new dedicated Sky F1 channel, even though I would rather not have to pay for it but such is life. An idea for everyone moaning about it, you could always go to the pub and watch it or just accept what has happened and purchase sky anyway. Before you can dislike it you have to try it, you never know could turn out to be great for F1 and F1's future.

Of course with Sky having it on it's own channel there is no reason at some point in the future that this channel could not be on freeview, this would of course be a truly awful prospect for the licence payer as the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ would still be flying broadcast teams all over the world but have no viewers.

Lets be clear the cost saving of this deal must be virtually nothing it was a poor move by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ for themselves and for the licence payer

YES to a dedicated F1-centric channel and Martin Brundle's commentary. Every sport that Sky has "adopted" has been improved significantly for the viewer, and this will be no different.

NO to monotonous whinging about something that isn't going to be changed.

#18: "I would rather not have to pay for it but such is life. An idea for everyone moaning about it, you could always go to the pub and watch it or just accept what has happened and purchase sky anyway."

------------------

Name me one pub that will show F1 over the Sunday football games.

Wait, Sky are creating a dedicated channel? Why the blazes didn't they do this for the cricket and the rugby? I'd have been a subscriber years ago if I didn't have to subsidise football, the richest sport in the country, to watch the sports I actually enjoy!

Of course, given the nakedly immoral nature of NI, I certainly won't be tempted by such rational behaviour any more.

I do hope that in 2012 the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ offer Murray a wider opportunity to give us his insights into F1. He is truly a legend and can open doors that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ must make the most of.

However, another ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blog highjacked by the anti Sky brigade. One comment that again the lack of clear and factual reasoning comes to the fore in a discussion on the 'Sky issue'. As one of the comments above states the Sky F1 channel will be available to those who subscribe the HD pack with Sky and not only Sky Sports subscribers. As a result the potential viewers for the channel will be higher than the Sky Sports only customers. Yes it will cost but wake up and smell the coffee most things that people actually want in life these days does!

I hope that Sky do an excellent job on F1 and the signs are that they are taking it seriously, spending some money on it and giving it the airtime that it deserves (just as the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ did before and realised it could no longer afford to do so).

I wish everyone would give it a rest on the Sky thing, I think the point has been made... Can someone tell me what the basics of the interview are instead please, I can't access it from here in Germany.

Why do people get so irate about a company outbidding another. Yes Sky has too much influence over the sports in this country, however, they do an excellent job with the coverage they produce. I do not have a Sky subscription and will have to rely on relatives to be able to watch the races only on Sky, but the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has still retained some of the more "exciting" races to watch. There would be greater uproar if they put up the Licence fee to subsidise the F1 bid!!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Yes to sky no to bbc

i am gutted about the bbc losing/giving the rights to sky,but at the nd of the day the bcc will get tons more viewers(i read somewhere they are predicting half a million per race on sky,compared to 4-6 mil average ,the peak was canada with over 12 million,silverstone was 2nd with over 9 million),that is a alot of eyes and i think the teams still might favour the bbc(interveiws,preveiws motorhome invites etc),as their sponsors will demand it,plus the bbc have a great team in ej,dc and jh and lee mac,the veiwers love them and the drivers/teams open up to them.hard for sky to compete with all their money,but getting ted kravitz was a great scoop.plus the bbc are showing 75 min plus of highlights which will definatly eclipse sky viewing figures. it is a bit stupid that the opening 2 races are not live on the bbc,and that we get all the trash races,2 spainsh races(should be ditched),singapore etc.but i am heart broken by the bbc not getting the new US race.that track look deadly and the atomsphere would of been electric.

but i dont blame the beeb for cutting cost,but maybe they should start with equestrian,beach volleyball,bowls,some snooker events,gymnastics.all of them are the most random thing ever,does anyone watch bowls?.instead of tennis(french open has left the bbc,the already limited aussie open coverage will soon follow i fear,why would they be dumping a award winning show/coverage.i blame bernie ecclestone,greedy little toad

Onion, you've managed to miss the entire point. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ already had a long-term contract for F1, and effectively sold it on to Sky as a cost-saving exercise.

This is yet another craven act of self-mutilation by a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ that is terrified of privatisation by this ideologically-driven right-wing Government.

#25 "Why do people get so irate about a company outbidding another?"

-----------------------

Have you even followed what happened?? Sky did not "outbid" the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ went to Sky and stitched us (by "us" I mean F1 fans who cannot afford Sky) up by preventing another terrestrial channel securing the rights. It's the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ everyone is angry with, not necessarily just Sky.

i am gutted about the bbc losing/giving the rights to sky,but at the nd of the day the bcc will get tons more viewers(i read somewhere they are predicting half a million per race on sky,compared to 4-6 mil average ,the peak was canada with over 12 million,silverstone was 2nd with over 9 million),that is a alot of eyes and i think the teams still might favour the bbc(interveiws,preveiws motorhome invites etc),as their sponsors will demand it,plus the bbc have a great team in ej,dc and jh and lee mac,the veiwers love them and the drivers/teams open up to them.hard for sky to compete with all their money,but getting ted kravitz was a great scoop.plus the bbc are showing 75 min plus of highlights which will definatly eclipse sky viewing figures. it is a bit stupid that the opening 2 races are not live on the bbc,and that we get all the trash races,2 spainsh races(should be ditched),singapore etc.but i am heart broken by the bbc not getting the new US race.that track look deadly and the atomsphere would of been electric.

but i dont blame the beeb for cutting cost,but maybe they should start with equestrian,beach volleyball,bowls,some snooker events,gymnastics.all of them are the most random thing ever,does anyone watch bowls?.instead of tennis(french open has left the bbc,the already limited aussie open coverage will soon follow i fear,why would they be dumping a award winning show/coverage.i blame bernie ecclestone,greedy little so and so

well to continue the off topic theme I will bitterly miss Jake EJ DC the F1 Forum and of course fleetwood mac but life goes on so to Sky it is when it needs to be. But to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD it will be when I can and its live. I will still though play my Fleetwood mac ringtone at the start of every sky program.

@4 Are you Ben Gallop, the head of F1 at the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ? Shurely we musht be told

@25 "There would be greater uproar if they put up the Licence fee to subsidise the F1 bid!!". Sorry - cant agree with that! The TV Licencing website reports that in 2009/10 there were 24,963,799 licenses in force. I belive the minimum cost to watch on Sky is around £330 per annum - personally I'd rather pay the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ an extra £2 per annum to give them the £50m they need to broadcast the whole season. No brainer!

I'd say with teams beginning top drop out of FOTA, because of the perception that Redbull aren't keeping to the gentlemens agreement on spending limits, the answer may well be not as much as this year i'm sure ferraris spending will go up. certain rule changes regarding the splitter may affect them as well, the pivoting splitter being and blown diffusers out next year.

When are people going to move into the 21st century, Sky totally dominate global tv. I have been with Sky since the late 80`s so that I could watch the tour de france etc. It costs a few quid but at the end of the day the service is good (relatively) and I don`t really give a toss what Murdoch gets up to in his business life, it doesn`t affect me and it is only a symptom of our extreme capitalist society, a lot more people will have done a lot worse in the name of profit - get real. I can`t wait for the new season to start, I shall watch them all live in full HD and 7.1 surround sound

The fun of F1 is when a driver push hard and take risk, which is what Hamilton gives to the fan and help to the publicity of the sports, without car crash and controversies is F1, there will be less fun in it. You need to push your car to the limit, push other drivers to the limit so they can make a mistake, I believe Hamilton is the world best F1 driver, Button is just a careful driver that sits at the fence and wait for others to crash so he can pass, to me Vettel is not a good driver he only have a good and the fastest car, how many serious and technical overtakes did he perform , how many line drags with other drivers did he do?.... In my opinion ,if I am to list the 5 best F1 drivers my list will be: (1) Hamilton (2) Alonso (3) Webber (4) Button (5) Vettel

Its a shame F1 is off from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ but there is nothing we can do about it now, the deal had been done and dusted and they have all find their ways to the bank.

#36,

Very classy way to flaunt your wealth- well done. We can't all afford that you know.

#36, bravo and well put, I'm sure the coverage will be better, look at sky football compared to say the itv fa cup coverage, it's worlds apart!

Good god peeps stop complaining about the sky deal , It will be like a breath of fresh air no eddie :) no Jake :) hopefully redbull not winning every race :) a nice new start and I suspect a very good F1 season and if you get "sky HD you get F1 for free"
Ows about that then!

As a Brit living in Italy we have SKY to access UK/US sports and TV shows. A couple of years ago they sold the F1 rights back to RAI (the Italian ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ) and while the RAI coverage is OK, I confess that I do miss the races on SKY with their multiple camera options, in-race stats pages, no Ferrari-kissing commentary and interruption-free races, which are all repeated at least once later in the day. I know it's selfish, but I wish we had it back on SKY here too!

I don't have SKY. I won't be subscribing to SKY. I will however be following every race on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ. The 5 Live Sports Extra Radio coverage is excellent. I watched every race with the TV pictures & 5L+ commentary.

C'mon people, where's your imagination! It's not all about pictures!

Not in the UK anymore so ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ SKY and ITV are not an issue BUT ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, if you stopped paying large salaries to overpaid stars (would allow younger fresher talent to come forward), you might be able to continue with F1. Bernie should also be ashamed for asking too much. Anyhow, I don't subscribe to Speed in the US as its way too expensive BUT if F1 forces people to look for free live feeds, they will be the losers. At least MotoGP will allow you to watch races on a pay per view basis. Bernie is not smart enough to allow that.

Not sure what any of you think you're going to achieve by constantly whinging other than being able to say "look at me, I complained, I didn't just sit back and accept it, ok it made no difference, but I still complained, hurray for me". The time for complaining and hoping it might make any sort of difference was months ago. I get the impression some of you are continously complaining because, put simply, you don't have anything better to do than moan on a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blog. Get over yourselfves. The deal is done. Nothing is changing. You can moan for the next 4 years if you want and it'll make absolutely no difference.

Anyone know if Martin Brundle will be joining Sky? He's the only one I'd want from the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ team, the rest are robots like the MOTD team.

Surely he won't be happy with only doing half the races live and he knows he is the hottest property in F1 punditry.

The Sky coverage will be outstanding as it always is with their sports coverage, they are launching a Sky Sports F1 HD channel in March for the new season, an HD channel totally dedicated to F1 with all the practice, qualifying and race sessions with all sorts of opinions and analysis thrown in.

If Brundle can be persuaded to join Sky as a commentator and they get James Allan as a pundit instead of commentator it will complete the coverage for me. Tony Jardine just doesn't inspire excitement in me I'm affraid.

Won't miss Coulthard and Humphrey or Jordan's gaffes.

@stevvy1986. You're right of course. But lots of people still lose their sense of perspective and forget that life just isn't very fair sometimes.

Can't understand why people are still winging about SKY, Winges should be directed elsewhere, ie, The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ for instance who were told by the Government they had to make savings, and as a Government owned enterprise they had no choice in following their masters wishes, SKY will provide uninterrupted races, that cuts accross their revenue generating interests but they are doing it anyway. Nothing comes free in this world, it cost a vast amount of money to broadcast F1 and the least the fans can do is to subscribe to the provider of the best service, that provider in 2012 will be SKY. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are yesterday's broadcaster of F1 but they can't provide the service anymore, it's time to say thanks for their past excellent service and wish them well for their new cut down service.

Just read that Martin Brundle and David Croft are joining Sky Sports F1 HD along with Anthony Davidson, Ted Kravitz, and Natalie Pinkham all from the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.

This is great news, one because I don't have to listen to Coulthard's moaning about "he might get a penalty for that" for a driver going over a blade of grass and squishing an ant and two because Croft and Brundle will be excellent, and if they are not and I don't want to listen, then Sky will offer the oportunity for me to turn them off and just listen to the roar of the engines as they do with the commentators in their football covereage, whereas the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ force you to listen to their drones.

It's quite funny reading this - I genuinely don't understand why people think the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are at fault for spending less money on a 'sport' which quite frankly has become less and less entertaining every year for at least a decade.

SKY are very adept at manipulating minority sporting viewers to convince people to subscribe to the packages - how many people buy SKY just to watch the American Football or the darts? You'll watch them if nothing else is on and I guess the same will be true for people switching on and channel hopping to F1 (although just as many will hop to a different channel if it doesn't get any more exciting).

The one thing you can't criticise is the quality of the coverage and at least you'll have the added bonus of Rugby League most weekends!

does this clip even mention sky??

Sky's domination is ridiculous. F1 was a great oppurtunity for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to keep some top flight sport on TV, but it wasn't taken. Button for 2012 title, but im pessimistic for one reason... Vettel.

No to Sky and now No to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ (because of not securing Brundle), after over 25 years of dedication I am quitting F1........

@44 and any others that keep going on about people not liking the sky deal stop moaning if you dont like it dont read it and you have the cheek to tell people they have no life please get over yourself these blogs are not just for you:)

These blogs would be dead if it was not for them (and eb's spam posts lol).
Red bull wont have such an easy ride the time round.

@52 The bbc let all the talent walk not just brundle they did get some guy I never heard of doing it next year he could be just as good as brundle(not that im going to hold my breath on that one)

Why is the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is so keen to tell us about F1 2012? They have sold the viewers/licence fee payers down the road with the underhand deal to Murdoch's SKY. The patronising tone of the reporting now that pretends nothing has changed and everything in the garden is lovely is rather pathetic..............

The ratings for SPOTY this year tanked through the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ not considering or listening to the customer; can't see it being any different for F1 ;)

I believe the person in charge of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ sports section at the time was Barbara Slater


I think she SHOULD RESIGN for this pathetic deal... I am an F1 fan and I am not sure how I can have the same enthusiasm if there is no consistency in the coverage

How much do you lot pay for your licence over there? With the money you all fork out to subsidise the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, they ought to produce the best coverage. They can afford to pay top money to get the best because they don't have to compete in the real world, so stop praising them for being so good, it's down to you letting them pick your pockets.

Can people please get a grip, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is still going to be covering all races, just not live unfortunately. As I do have Sky I'll be watching them live there when the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are only showing highlights and I will remain true to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ when they air the 10 races live that they are contracted to do so. Does anyone realise that the full race will still be shown on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 1, just not live. Back to my point, Red Bull next year have a tall order to be as good if not better, and I am 100% confident that they can shine through once more, and bring themselves their third consecutive constructers championship and for Sebastian to become only the 3rd man in the history of the sport to make it 3 championships in 3 seasons!

To be honest, as long as the Beeb show the "classics", its all good.

"Bye Bye Formula 1 - Hello BTCC on ITV4"

@17.ADW48

F1 is/was the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's top rated sport.

F1 Cost per Viewer Hour = Hit
F1 Cost per Viewer = Hit
F1 Actual Reach 54% = Hit
F1 Actual Live Rating = Hit

Other sports in the report:

Euro 2008 Cost per Viewer Hour = Miss
Euro 2008 Actual Reach 35.2% = N/A
Olympics 2008 Cost per Viewer Hour = Miss
Olympics 2008 Actual Reach 42% = Miss
Olympics 2008 live Rating = Miss
Open Golf 2009 Cost per Viewer Hour = Miss
Open Golf 2009 live Rating = Miss
Snooker 2009 Cost per Viewer Hour = Miss
Snooker 2009 live Rating = Miss

Only Wimbledon tennis matches the success the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has had with F1, even so F1's cumulative reach throughout the year is nearly double that of Wimbledon, despite Wimbledon having more broadcast sessions.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

So F1 is going to SKY....please people deal with it......all the moaning on these pages is not going to change a thing!!!

If you actually read about the coverage it does sounds pretty ..and much more if it including older footage from archives.....so if you love F1 its gonna be even better as far as I can see!! ( that said will be watching the Beeb for their live races!)

Sky have been the best and most dedicated sports broadcaster over the last 10-15 years, F1 coverage will be so much better now

I haven't commented on the sky deal before. Interesting to see its still a live debate.

I'm already a sky sports subscriber, so the change doen' t greatly affect me. However, I was only 'forced' to buy into sky because my other sports-love, cricket, moved over about 5 years ago. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ stopped putting any money into cricket decades ago now.

What I hate most about being a sky sport subscriber is that my money is mainly being used to fund Neanderthal footballers to by bentleys. IF I could just buy cricket (and now f1) I'd happily pay. As it is, I hate every penny I have to give Murdoch to enable me to get live pictures of the sports I love. I just wish sky had some decent competition.